Saturday, August 16, 2014

STAR TREK BEHIND THE SCENES IMAGES 6

The Klingon Battlecruiser miniature sits in the Howard Anderson Company shooting stage: The effects crew has rigged a black curtain behind the model; a bit of the regular blue-screen can be seen at the left side of frame, and the dolly track for the camera is at the bottom.

My guess is that a black background is used in this case since there is no perspective change in the shot; a travelling-matte would not be needed for the final composite. Utilizing a film clip printed from the shot a rotoscope artist would trace the outline of the model on paper then fill it in with black ink. This paper would then be pegged onto the animation stand and photographed on hi-contrast film to produce the matte element.